Here a female Cardinal is sitting high up in a medium Elm tree on a cold morning. (11 Jan 2013)

This is another shot on the same morning. I love this profile view with the tuft held high. (11 Jan 2013)

Here she is sitting high in a tree again a month earlier (not necessarily the same individual), making a little noise. (12 Dec 12)

Here she is taking off from one branch to another. (12 Dec 12)

She’s eating from the ground. Her mate is nearby but not in the photo. (2 Dec 2012)

Here I caught a female in the act of bringing material to build her nest. She stopped and waited when she saw me. Since I was still walking in her direction, she flew back into a tree and waited till I came and went then resumed her business. (17 Mar 2012)

It wasn’t until a month later that I happened to notice a little nest in a small bushy Elm tree very close to where I had spotted the mom coming with nest-building material in her mouth. If you look close, you can see the head and an eye of a baby Cardinal. I can’t tell, but there might be two of them in there.

I was careful to avoid making any disturbance in that area until I noticed the nest was empty. The nest wasn’t easy to see, there was much bushy green leafage surrounding it. (17 Apr 2012)

This was a month after I got my camera, and the first day a Cardinal sat nearby (didn’t fly off) while I snapped photos. This was the first time I got good look at a female Cardinal and began to see the sweet beauty she possesses. (13 Mar 2012)

During our 40-photo session, she occasionally flittered around from one branch to another within the same tree, offering pose after pose. It turned out the lighting wasn’t so good for many of the shots I took, but I was just happy getting a closer look at her. (13 Mar 2012)